When my GrandPal, Hugh, was 27 years old, he and his wife, Rosemary, were group-home parents. They ran this group home in Peterborough for almost three years and cared for six children during that time.
One year, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater came to town. It is a world-renowned African American dance company that Rosemary really wanted to see. Two months in advance, she and Hugh offered to buy tickets for any children who wanted to go. All of the kids said yes, so Hugh bought tickets for the whole family.
Two days before the performance, one of the boys, 16-year-old John, decided he would rather hang out with his friends instead. Hugh told John that he had to go because all the tickets were already bought. John was not happy about it.
When the day came to go see the show, Hugh and Rosemary took the kids to lunch at The Old Spaghetti Factory as a special treat before heading to the theatre. They arrived at the theatre and sat down in their front-row seats on the balcony. The Alvin Ailey Dance Group was reenacting The Underground Railroad, and there was a dark blue, 20-metre ribbon that the dancers moved like a parachute, making it look like waves. Hugh especially liked this part because it made the whole show more compelling and easy to understand.
At the beginning of the show, John was uninterested and disengaged. As the performance went on, though, he was very intrigued. The whole experience was a big eye-opener for John to try new things, even when he was unsure about something new.